Toys, life and people

More big kids than I thought

Just a quick wee post today. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the response to the ‘Toys for grown ups for Christmas’ page that I set up yesterday, apparently there are more big kids out there than I thought. The other interesting thing is that by getting up to 10 likes in less than a day (OK it’s not that much but it’s something) the response to this page is much more positive than the initial reaction to the ‘Fun Junction‘ facebook page I set up a few months back. I’m guessing that it’s because it’s much easier to get behind an idea than a brand. For example, people like the idea of traditional wooden toys but few of the brands which are genuinely good at making these products (wooden and tin toys) get very high recognition, whilst companies like Mattel and Leap Frog do.

I think the main reason for this is that ‘traditional toys’ are already an idea in themselves, it’s a fully defined concept, you say traditional toy and you picture perhaps a jack-in-the-box, a wooden train a rag doll etc. etc. (you get the idea). A brand which makes these products (even one that makes them really well) won’t often stand out via their product alone because their product already embodies a fully fledged idea*. However, companies like Mattel and Leap Frog have developed an idea around their toys (or their toys around an idea, whichever you prefer) and an idea is easy to market. Bright clean efficient and recognisable toys (from Mattel) and technologically enhanced learning systems which offer a hands on, robust playing experience (Leap Frog).

So the idea of asking for a toy for Christmas, so that we adults can enjoy the experience of playing on Christmas day too, can catch on easily: people can just say ‘yes I like that idea’ whereas your impression of a shop is likely to be a more complex issue (despite the fact that we all know how great a shop Fun Junction is) . On a side note, I’d love to see people post their idea for what they’d like for Christmas and I’ve explained how to do it in the facebook page but for some reason it doesn’t seem to be working as well as I’d like (my sister posted her idea last night but it’s yet to show up on the main page). Maybe this is an issue with facebook that’ll sort itself out (the page is less than a day old, perhaps they’re still approving bits of it, I don’t know how these things work to be honest).

Anyway thanks to our likers so far, here’s hoping for more soon, thanks for reading.